International Lithium Corp grabs more land near Upsala west of Thunder Bay

"Firesteel is primarily a copper project. Initial studies reveal highly prospective amounts of copper at Firesteel, and there is also a smaller amount of cobalt and some gold there too," said John Wisbey, Chairman and CEO. 

International Lithium Corp. is pleased to announce it has entered into a Purchase and Sale Agreement to acquire a 90% interest in a highly prospective grass roots copper and cobalt property in Northwestern Ontario. 

The Firesteel project ("Firesteel" or the "Project" or "Property"), previously referred to as the Honeyjack project, is located less than 10 km directly west of Upsala along Highway 17 and stretches for 16 km to the Firesteel River (Figure 1 and 2). 

Under the terms of the Agreement, the Company will acquire an undivided 90% right, title, and interest in Firesteel by:

• Paying on the Effective Date CAD $55,000 in cash to the Vendor (paid);
• Within 15 calendar days of Exchange approval of the Agreement:
  • at the discretion of ILC, either (a) paying CAD $110,000 in cash, or (b) paying CAD $65,000 in cash and issuing common shares with an aggregate value of CAD $45,000 to the Vendor; and
• Granting the right to receive the following milestone payments:
  • if ILC establishes a Resource Calculation equal to or exceeding 10,000,000 metric tonnes at 1% Copper (the "First Resource Bonus Threshold"), ILC shall pay, at its sole discretion, any one of (i) CAD $1,000,000 in cash or (ii) such number of Common Shares having an aggregate value of CAD $1,000,000 or (iii) a combination of cash and Common Shares having an aggregate value of CAD $1,000,000;
  • if ILC establishes a Resource Calculation equal to or exceeding 15,000,000 metric tonnes at 1% Copper (the "Second Resource Bonus Threshold"), ILC shall pay, at its sole discretion, any one of (i) a further CAD $1,000,000 in cash, or (ii) such number of Common Shares having an aggregate value of CAD $1,000,000, or (iii) a combination of cash and Common Shares having an aggregate value of CAD $1,000,000.

The Agreement was signed on February 16, 2024. No finder's fees were paid to facilitate this transaction.

Project Highlights

• Resident Geologist Program site visit confirms*:
  • up to 2.8% Cu at the Roadside 1 occurrence on Highway 17; and
  • 5802 ppm Cu with 217.5 ppm Co and 1728 ppm Cu with 309 ppm Co at the Roadside 2, approximately 2.8 km west (along strike) from the Roadside 1 occurrence.
• 2.6% Cu in a historical sample* at the Roadside 2 occurrence;
• 316 mining claim units covering an area of approximately 6,600 hectares;
• Excellent infrastructure and access to technical and logistical support services; and
• 16 km of strike potential for VMS style Cu-Co mineral deposits in parallel structures.

The Company completed a 1,392 line-km airborne magnetic and electromagnetic survey utilizing the RESOLVE frequency domain electromagnetic system. The data will be interpreted to identify near-surface highly conductive zones that may represent massive sulphide mineralization consisting of pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, pyrite and bornite as witnessed at the Roadside 1 occurrence (Figure 3).

Several conductive zones, including one coincident with the Roadside 1 and 2 occurrences, are evident in the raw data. Final products from the airborne data are expected in the next month. Following the review of this data, the Company will follow up with prospecting and ground geophysics in preparation for drill testing later in 2024.

Project Overview 

The Project consists of 73 mining claims, making up 316 mining claim units covering an area of approximately 6,600 hectares in Northwestern Ontario. The property is adjacent to Highway 17, less than 10 km west of Upsala, Ontario. It stretches westward to the Firesteel River for approximately 16 km.

The Trans Canada natural gas pipeline and CP Rail corridor transects the project making for easy access to existing infrastructure (Figure 2).

The Project is located within the central Wabigoon Sub-province at the eastern limit of the Lumby Lake Greenstone Belt. The Lumby North assemblage in the vicinity of Upsala is described in "Stone, D. 2010. Precambrian geology of the central Wabigoon Subprovince area, northwestern Ontario; Ontario Geological Survey, Open File Report 5422, 130p," as mafic sequences interlayered with iron formation and quartz arenite adjacent to the Marmion batholith. It contains massive mafic flows or gabbro interspersed with thin felsic meta volcanics and rare pillowed mafic units.

On October 5, 2021, D. Campbell (RRG), accompanied by B. Holbik, completed a property visit on the Property (then known as the Honeyjack property). 17 samples were collected from historic copper and gold occurrences. 

They included various styles of mineralization and alteration including: i) quartz veins with stringers, blebs and disseminations of pyrite, pyrrhotite and trace chalcopyrite, ii) silicious metasedimentary rocks and iron formations with associated sericite alteration, pyrite, pyrrhotite, trace chalcopyrite and fuchsite, and iii) lenses of semi-massive and net-textured sulphides consisting of pyrite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite and bornite as indicated by the bright peacock colours (Figure 3-A).

RRG collected 6 samples of semi-massive and net-textured sulphides at the Roadside 1 Cu Zone on the south side of Highway 17, centred at 677465E 5435937N. The highest copper assay returned 28637 ppm Cu.

"Historical assay results from samples taken at locations approximately 1.6 km northeast and 2.8 km southwest of the Roadside 1 Cu Zone returned values of up to 2.6% Cu, 3.327 ppm Au and 2.6% Cu, 4.294 ppm Au, respectively (Bumbu 1995). RGP collected 2 samples (21DCHJ016-017) approximately 2.8 km southwest of the Firesteel Cu Zone, returning 5802 ppm Cu and 217.5 ppm Co, respectively. Approximately 225 m north of sample 21DCHJ017, Bumbu sampling returned 1728 ppm Cu and 309 ppm Co (D. Campbell, 2022)."

* International Lithium Corp. has not independently verified samples collected under the Resident Geologist Program and as with samples referred to as "historical" above, these analytical results are collectively being treated as historical in nature until the Company can carry out its own investigations with QA/QC protocols under the supervision of a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101.

D. Campbell (RRG) summarized: 

"The potential for a highly metamorphosed volcanogenic massive sulphide pyrrhotite-chalcopyrite stringer zone or a volcanic-associated sedimentary copper system, perhaps up to 20 m wide and spanning up to 1 km or more in length, should not be overlooked."

John Wisbey, Chairman and CEO of ILC, commented: 

"Exposure to copper fits our battery metals strategy well and is geographically a very natural follow-on for ILC from our investment in 2022 in the nearby Wolf Ridge claims. Moreover, our flagship Raleigh Lake lithium and rubidium project is also only an hour's drive away on a major road. This is, therefore, a very good project for us to add to our exploration portfolio. 

"Our key focus remains lithium, but copper is also a vital metal in the battery revolution, so we now have copper and rubidium as important metals in our projects to complement our lithium. The access to infrastructure is, like Raleigh Lake, excellent."

Tags: Northern Ontario / Exploration / Battery Metals / All Articles